The Christian Faith is Based Upon Evidence
Is There Any Other Kind?by J. Warner Wallace

Introduction

Sometimes Christians have a mistaken definition of "faith". Because faith
is sometimes described as believing in things that cannot be seen,
Christians often think of faith as an act of believing in things that have
no evidential basis. In essence, some Christians believe that "true faith"
is believing in something in spite of the evidence or believing in something
when there is no evidence to support the belief in the first place!

Biblical definition of faith

But this is not the Biblical definition of faith. While it is true that
God is a Spirit and cannot be seen, it is not true that there is no evidence
to support the existence of the unseen God. While we may not see anyone
throw a rock in a pond, we may indeed see the ripples that the rock created
on the surface of the water and come to the belief that someone threw a rock
into the pond on the basis of this evidence. In a similar way, there are
many good reasons to believe that God exists, and the Biblical model of true
faith involves examining the evidence for God’s existence.

The Christian life is more than a life of blind trust. It is a life of
rational examination that challenges each of us to evaluate the evidence,
form a conclusion and then share that conclusion with the world around us.
Let’s examine the Biblical model of evidential faith:

Christians Are Called to Use Their Minds

God tells us that we are to love Him with more than our heart. We are to
have a relationship that is emotional and intellectual:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and
foremost commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

When we examine our world and the evidence for the existence of God, we
are worshipping God with our mind and this kind of worship pleases God.

Christians Are Called to Understand the Value of Evidence

God has given us a number of good evidential reasons to believe that He
exists and that Jesus is who He says He is. We are not called to have blind
faith, but to have a well reasoned, evidential faith:

…until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit
given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also
presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs,
appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the
things concerning the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:2-3)

And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three
Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving
evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. (Acts 17:2-3)

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now
declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man
whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him
from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

The Greek word used for "proof" in Acts 17:31 is "pistis".1 The word is
derived from "peitho" which is a Greek verb that means "to convince by
argument" that something is either true or false. The word is also used as a
verb to describe one’s "assent" to a point in light of the evidence, or to
describe the inner "certainty" that one can have as a result of trusting the
evidence. But interestingly, this word that Paul uses for "proof" here,
although it is used in 244 other places in the New Testament, is never
translated elsewhere as "proof" or "evidence". In every other appearance in
the scripture, this word is translated as "faith". The Biblical notion of
"faith" is to place one’s confidence and trust in something that can be
demonstrated with "proof", "evidence" or a "convincing argument". Biblical
faith is not blind; it is rooted in evidence.

Christians Are Called to Examine Their Beliefs

God wants us to know what we believe and why we believe it. We’re not
called to numbly trust everything that might be taught in our world today,
even if some Christian teacher is the source! We’re expected to be critical,
skeptical and thoughtful:

And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to
Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they
received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily,
to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:10-11)

Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But
examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good…(1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out
into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Skepticism is important to the Christian faith; skepticism causes us to
examine what we believe and search for the evidence that confirms our
beliefs. God honors this kind of skepticism because He knows that it leads
to a deeper faith in Him. There is a place for skepticism in the life of the
Christian because it causes us to "examine the Scriptures daily".

Christians Are Called to be Convinced of What They Believe

God wants us to be certain and base our certainty on evidence that can be
articulated to others who may have doubts:

Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me
His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to
the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been
revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished
death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for
which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this
reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom
I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have
entrusted to Him until that day. (2 Timothy 1:8-12)

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become
convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them… (2 Timothy 3:14)

Conviction is the result of certainty, and certainty is the result of
evidential confidence. We are called to be convinced by mastering the
evidence that supports what we believe. The Christians life is not one of
"wishful thinking" or "hope in the unreasonable". It is a life of certainty,
grounded in the evidence.

About the Author

J. Warner Wallace is a cold-case homicide detective and a Christian case
maker at Stand to Reason.
Formerly a vocal atheist, at the age of thirty-five, J. Warner took a serious and
expansive look at the evidence for the Christian Worldview and determined that
Christianity was demonstrably true. J. Warner's first book,
Cold-Case Christianity, provides readers with ten principles of cold case
investigations and utilizes these principles to examine the reliability of the
gospel eyewitness accounts.

Rich Deem, editor

Christians Are Called to be "Case Makers"

Once we have examined the evidence and have come to the conclusion that
Christianity is true, we are called to be ready to make a strong defense for
what we believe:

…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to
make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope
that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence… (1 Peter 3:15)

The Christian life is a rational and reasonable life that is rooted and
grounded in the evidence of the Resurrection and the truth of the Bible.
Christians are saved by placing their trust in Jesus, but Christians become
a powerful force in their world when they commit themselves to being "case
makers" for what they believe.

Conclusions

Christians can be "case makers" precisely because the Christian faith is
an evidential faith. When we, as Christians, argue for the truth of the
Christian Worldview, we are not sharing an opinion. There either is a God,
or there is not. Jesus is that God, or He is not. Salvation comes through
Christ alone (as Jesus Himself maintained), or it does not. This is not a
matter of opinion, personal preference or wishful thinking. The Christian
faith is grounded in evidence that can be assessed and evaluated. The
Christian faith is an evidential faith.